Coming of Night
by Skywolf24
Summary: During a Florence sunset Bruce Wayne finally embraces his new life, while his little girl embraces his symbol. Post TDKR Bat/Cat family.


**Coming of Night  
**

* * *

She was perfect. A blissful dream waiting in the sunrise. Her pale skin was tarnished with the heavenly glow of Florence dawn, her curvaceous body was leaned against a stone brick of the Arno bridge while her dark eyes of the mixture of coffee and molten caramel were narrowed slightly down as brush of painted lashes flickered when the light of the fading sun outlined the sharp curvatures of her face. She wore a white tank top and black skinny jeans that snuggled over her child-bearing hips. Her dark auburn hair was tousled with sharp bangs resting on forehead as curtains of ringlets draped over each side of her face.

To many she appeared to look as beautiful and angelic as an angel, there was even a glow of light shrouding over her top stands of hair. But he knew the truth behind those exquisite and pristine features highlighted with right amount of freckles. She was gentle a woman beyond the veil of her darken past, a fighter for those who could not fend for themselves and a genuine treasure to love. Everyday he would feel her warm body against his, easing the throbbing of old battle scars and mending bones. Her bright and assuring smile always took his breath away and the depth of her dark and misty eyes held a promise of future inside those swirls of her wounded soul.

Now, Selina was something far greater than an emotional savior and equal partner to share a bed with during those stormy nights. She was his partner of an everlasting vow, a sword for a knight to wield against his own demons and a security for telling him that they will survive the tempests they will face.

She lifted her gaze and found, the man who found a away to eclipse her misty-graying soul, a harbor to swim back to when drowning in the deep end of her mistakes. A partner, companion and lover to hold when facing the darkness of her own demons. Bruce Wayne was standing there with a infectious grin playing over his soft lips, as she adjusted her eyes and absorbed his carefree appearance and watched his hooded gaze of hazel-green dazzle in the faint shafts of sunlight. He was wearing a black unpressed dress shirt, grey cargo pants and track shoes. His dark hair was tousled and touching past the nape of his neck with a strands descend over the sharpness of his jawline. She knew every detail about him: the defined lines at the corners of his smooth lips and at the center of his brow, the angular structure of his face and the jagged canines of his upper teeth.

Her gaze wavered over his chiseled modern day warrior body and settled on to melting cones of strawberry ice cream in his large hands. She smirked, thinking it was adorable seeing the billionaire prince of Gotham act sort of like a slave to her needs and the mess of liquid cream dripping off his curled fingers and his golden wedding band.

"You shouldn't have," she purred with a flippant tone, watching him causally stunt forward and close the distance between them. His hazel eyes were crisp as he smiled lightly only to laugh as he heard the sound of girlish squeals cut through the content scenery of the Florence harbor. Selina arched her eyebrow and looked over his shoulder at a dark haired little girl running toward them from a nearby swing set. "I'm guessing the other cone is for our overly excited daughter."

Bruce pursed his lips and turned around to find Alfred Pennyworth trailing behind his three-year old little girl, he couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of his refined butler covered in sand and stains of apple juice on his blue stripped golf shirt. "Now that's a rare sight to see." He curved his lips into a blissful smirk which only lasted until his daughter rammed herself full force into his legs, wrapping her little arms around him tightly.

He squatted to his knees and looked into his daughter's bright eyes, the color of his intense hazel ones and encased with the shape of Selina's dark eyes. He handed her the ice cream cone as she giggled with silly and adorable sounds before opening her rosy delicate lips and taking a few licks of the strawberry frozen cream.

"Thank you, Daddy." she said, and then moved to her mother. "Can we go exploring, mommy?"

Selina smiled beautifully and crouched down, wiping a smear of ice cream off her daughter's chin with her thumb. She looked at Bruce and then back at her little girl. "I don't see why we can't, sweetie." She glanced over at Alfred standing behind her husband. "I think we'll let your daddy and grandpa have some male bonding time, while we have some fun." She straighten on the balls of her feet and clutched her daughter's tiny hand.

The little girl placed the cone in Selina's hand. "Just one second, mommy." she said, before racing up to her father, nearly knocking him off his feet, Bruce raised her into the air with his arms, staring up at her with glistening hazel eyes as she giggled. "Daddy, put me down."

Bruce lowered Helena down, just enough to press a soft kiss on her forehead. He took a moment and absorbed the little beauty grasped in his arms. She shared half of his features and half of Selina's beautiful ones. Her cheeks were full of light freckles and her skin was fair. She was undeniably the most gorgeous little girl he'd ever saw but there was almost his intense fierceness in her eyes and brazen attitude in her smirk. She was everything he ever wanted and so much more.

He covered her forehead with loving warm kisses, and then settled her down. She raced to Alfred and wrapped her arms around his waist, as his aged spotted hand stroked through her long chocolate locks.

"Grandpa Alfred," Helena said with a childish voice looking directly up into his wintery blue eyes. "Can we have a tea party when I get back?"

Alfred curled his wither lips into a jovial smile. "Only if you can get father to come." he winked, before watching the three year old march to Bruce and tug on his black shirt.

Bruce dropped his gaze at his daughter and bent down to her level, " What is it princess?"

"You better come to the tea party, Daddy." Helena clenched her small hand into a fist. "I'll be hunting you down."

"I'll be there," Bruce smiled with a ghost of a chuckle on his lip, he was trying to pretend to be afraid of her fierce words.

"Good," she replied and then walked back to the mother, Bruce trailed behind her and then enclosed his arms around Selina's trim waist, he covered his wife's full red painted lips into a loving kiss and then pulled away, not noticing the ice cream dripping over the wrinkles of his shirt.

Selina brushed her lips tenderly over his soft ones and whispered against his chiseled jaw, "We'll meet you boys back home, Mr. Wayne." She pulled away with their daughter's hand clasped into hers and Bruce smiled gently listening to their laughter cut through the stillness in the humid air.

When he felt Alfred's firm and reassuring hand grasp his broad shoulder, he turned around and looked into gentle blue eyes of his longtime friend and surrogate father. "You know I could have never done this without you, Alfred."

Alfred raised one white haired eyebrow. "What ever do you mean, Master Wayne?"

"If it wasn't for you..." he paused in his words, breathing softly. "This life wouldn't have happened. So thank you."

"You don't need to thank me, sir." Alfred gave the younger man a fatherly smile. He averted his eyes to Selina holding his granddaughter in her arms while strolling on the sandy shoreline. He shifted his blue orbs back to the man he raised from boyhood, gazing at the surreal peace brushed over Bruce's hawkish features and reach his hooded hazel eyes as the old Englishman's wrinkled face glowed with unconditional love.

"Yes, I do, Alfred. If you hadn't told me the truth about Rachel's letter. All of this...my wife and my little girl would have never came to be. It's because of you, I'm finally living again."

Alfred narrowed his eyes, "I want you to know something, Master Wayne. I know that you're parents would have been happy because I'm happy that the little boy I raised in the halls of Wayne Manor turned out to be a great man and a father. That's all I've ever wanted for you, sir. Now you are living a life that some men never have a chance too."

Bruce fastened his lips into a tight line and drew out a deep breath, "I have a feeling that Selina is pregnant again, Alfred. She's too stubborn to admit it but I know she's going to have another baby."

Alfred's eyes lit up and glistened.

Bruce's eyes filled with tears. "If I have a son I want to name him after my father and you, Alfred. The men who taught me everything I needed to know and so much more." He placed his hand on the older man's shoulder. "Thomas Alfred Wayne."

Alfred nodded, trying to keep his tears at bay. "That's a good name, sir."

"I know you haven't always been proud of me, Alfred." Bruce closed his eyes. " I never expected you."

"Master Wayne, I've always been proud of you. Never think of those bloody words again. Now go down there and be with your family, sir."

"You haven't given up at me?" Bruce smiled with his tender hazel eyes.

Alfred shook his head and answered, "Never." He watched the younger man raced down the shoreline, still imaging him as the same little freckled face boy who used to cry on the steps of the gardens of the Wayne family estate and he curled his lips into a proud smile and whispered under his breath. "Never, Bruce."

Bruce met his wife at the shoreline, she was massaging her hands over her stomach while watching Helena splash bare foot in the water. Selina met his stark gaze. The skin of his marquise shaped hazel eyes crinkled. Her upper lip arched into a smile and he smiled back, and her stomach started to flutter.

They shared a look across the shoreline. When she walked to closed, her bare toes sinking in the moist sand and finally reached him, she wrapped her arms around him, she stomach pressed against his waist. Her lips parted to release a content sigh, "I'm pregnant."

Bruce brushed the bangs off her forehead, dropping a gentle kiss as he did so.

"I already knew that, Selina. You tried to mask it from me. But I can see right through you."

She paused and reflected on his words as she watched their precious treasure giggle against the rolling side in front of them, Helena's happy smiles were expressing the joys of innocence while she felt her parent's gazes settle on her and the little girl knew she was safe. Then Selina looked deeply into Bruce's eyes noticing his cut-stone features were cloaked with loving radiance.

"You I thought all this time I was the one that saved you from the darkness, Selina."

"You did," she mumbled against his shoulder.

Bruce shook his head. "No. It was you who saved me." he replied, framing her face and covering her lips with a deep and loving kiss.

Helena looked back at her parents, embracing in the sunlight, watching the darkness cloak over their bodies. She looked down and found a rock in the sand, instantly she lifted it up and held to the brilliant colors of the sunset, and became memorized by the shape. It was perfectly cut and smooth and look like a symbol of a bat.

She held it close to her chest and kept it hidden in her hand, listening to her father's baritone voice calling out her name. She turned and raced over to her parents, looking up into their eyes of coffee and hazel while her tiny fingers embraced the symbol of the bat.

Night was approaching, but that was fine.

Bruce scooped up his daughter in his arms, Helena rested her head on his shoulder. She looked out at the sunset and noticing a few shapes fluttering in the dimming sky. "Daddy?" she asked with a silent yet curious voice. "What are those things?'

Bruce turned around and stared intently at the winged creatures, his face changed into the same expression he gave when he first laid his eyes on the symbol of fear he embraced a lifetime ago. His hazel eyes widen slight and edges of his lips curved up.

"Bats, Lena." he answered, settling his calming gaze on his daughter. "They're nothing to fear."

"I'm not afraid of them, Daddy." Helena's sleepy voice replied.

Bruce kissed his daughter on the head while a smile reach his eyes as he looked at his beautiful wife whose body was covered with a maternal glow. "I love you," he whispered, and stared down at his daughter fall asleep in his arms. He looked up at the bats fly above them.

Selina smirked, caressing her fingers with his hand. "It doesn't matter where you go or whatever you do, handsome. You will always be the Bat."

He nodded with a smile as the shadows of the bats became captured into his eyes will the voice of Robin John Blake chimed in his thoughts as he remembered the words he answered back to the young detective as he looked at his wife and content daughter.

_...to protect the people that I love._

* * *

**_A/N: Just a little something I wanted to write for any bat and cat fans. My thank you gift for supporting and reading my stories. Thank you so much!_**


End file.
